31 January 2012

«After consultation with the Section chairs of our Social Science and Humanities Sections; the Board have published the following paper.

This position paper is aimed at drawing public attention to several potentially dangerous facts and trends relating to the organisation and funding of science and scholarship (in its broadest sense) in Europe; which may soon result in non-recoverable losses in the Humanities and to some extent in the Social Sciences, especially in areas less related to the economic environment. At the same time, we suggest possible short and longer-time remedies and declare our determination to assist the European research community and the decision makers in minimising losses that will be unavoidable if the current situation remains unchanged.

27 January 2012

Late Medieval English Scribes is an online catalogue of all scribal hands (identified or unidentified) which appear in the manuscripts of the English writings of five major Middle English authors: Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, John Trevisa, William Langland and Thomas Hoccleve.

Responsáveis: Professor Linne R. Mooney, University of York (Principal Investigator), Dr Simon Horobin, University of Oxford (Co-Investigator), and Dr Estelle Stubbs, University of York (Research Associate), and Honorary Research Fellow, Humanities Research Institute (HRI), University of Sheffield.

How did local writers, compilers and readers use writing to inscribe regional identity within broader conventions or, on the other hand, impress 'universal' practices and constructs on local populations? In what way did the spread of sacred writing from the Mediterranean to the northern and eastern edges of Europe contribute to or reflect the creations of (both material and cultural) peripheries and centers? What were the different markets for books; can we characterize their developments and differences? How do the dynamics (e.g. the production, consumption and regulation) of this textual culture in the Latin West compare with those found in other places and periods? What new or existing methodologies can be employed to map the geographies of written words across Europe? Finally, to what extent does the examination of these issues support or undermine temporal and geographical bifurcations of the world into modern and 'not'.

Call for papers

We welcome proposals from scholars working on writers, book production and use, and responses to texts in any language up to 1450. Abstracts (300 words or less) for papers (20 minutes) should be submitted on-line using the form provided.

1. The word and its meaning a) The use and usage of the word scriptorium (and its synonyms); the evidence of different kinds of source (literary, iconographic, etc.) for its existence as an institutional entity. b) In what ways have scholars and writers of the classical, post-medieval and contemporary periods used the term or expressed the same concept?